Unpopular Basketball Opinions

Sep 22, 2010
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Not sure if unpopular, but...

Steph is playing as well as he did in his unanimous MVP season.

I'd say (slightly) better than his MVP season. Higher fg, 3pt and ft %. Defensively he has also better than he was. Scoring more points per minute while having KD who gets his. The actual quality of his play is the highest of his career.
 
Sep 22, 2010
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My unpopular opinion of the day. Bulls should never have fired Thibs and his Bulls should never have been broken up. That means Jimmy, D.Rose, Taj, Mirotic, Joakim and Deng. Pau was added to that core.

These Bulls today are too soft and while there is young talent a plenty, not enough of personnel defend or give enough effort so they're never going to go anywhere until radical roster reconstruction happens.
 
May 9, 2013
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I'd say (slightly) better than his MVP season. Higher fg, 3pt and ft %. Defensively he has also better than he was. Scoring more points per minute while having KD who gets his. The actual quality of his play is the highest of his career.

I'm not sure if better, mainly because there's a lot less pressure on him this season with Durant out there and he was leading a relatively young team.

That 73 win season was all about Steph.

Despite the fact the team was smashing the regular season, they were actually getting beaten by 4.3 points per 100 possessions when he was off the floor.

So, he needed to turn up night after night.

Teams defense was focused around stopping him.

Anyway, I'm not complaining. It's a hell of a ride :D
 
May 30, 2016
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Fans of smaller franchises with s**t, greedy ownership might need to get comfortable with the possibility of following the Sonics in a couple of years time.

That group didnt spend the extra hundreds of millions on making the arena multi purpose for nothing and they've already locked away an NHL team.

Lol
 
May 9, 2013
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As others have said, definitely not an unpopular opinion on Drazen Petrovic.

His final two seasons he averaged 21ppg while shooting 51% from the field and 45% from 3s. He was only 28.
 
Jun 23, 2008
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My unpopular opinion of the day. Bulls should never have fired Thibs and his Bulls should never have been broken up. That means Jimmy, D.Rose, Taj, Mirotic, Joakim and Deng. Pau was added to that core.

These Bulls today are too soft and while there is young talent a plenty, not enough of personnel defend or give enough effort so they're never going to go anywhere until radical roster reconstruction happens.

It feels like they kind of gave up and didn't want to wait around with Rose's injuries, but didn't really commit to a full quality rebuild, either.
 
Jun 23, 2008
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With the knowledge of what's happened since, it obviously looks terrible for the ownership.

But offering a 6th man (who came off an abortion of a Finals) close to max is pretty rare thing. No one expected what Harden actually became.

I mean Harden's first 3 years 13/3/3 shooting 44/37
Wiggens first 3 years 20/4/2 shooting 45/33

First three seasons

Minutes per game
Harden - 26.7
Wiggins - 36.2

Usage Percentage
Harden - 20.4
Wiggins - 26.3

Take that into account when looking at the difference in per game averages. What Harden was doing in limited minutes without a huge amount of touches was incredible.

Furthermore...

TS%
Harden - .605
Wiggins - .532

Free Throw Rate (number of FTA per FGA)
Harden - .503
Wiggins - .393

3-Point Rate (percentage of FGA from 3-point range)
Harden - .457
Wiggins - .151

PER
Harden - 17.2
Wiggins - 15.7

Win Shares Per 48 minutes
Harden - .171
Wiggins - .056

Given the minutes, touches, athleticism, size and hype Wiggins came in with, his first few years were pretty disappointing (way too many inefficient mid-range jumpshots, thinking he's Kobe or late-period Jordan), and he hasn't really improved a whole lot since (in fact, statistically and efficiency-wise, he has regressed). Harden's potential was tantalising, given that he could genuinely shoot from range, and get to the line at will, and he capitalised on it full when given greater opportunity in Houston.

Nobody expected Harden to become this good, but he was definitely seen as a future All-Star if he could be the #1 option on a team (eg. same number of minutes and touches as someone like Wiggins was getting in their first few years). Harden was thought of more highly than someone like Joe Johnson when he moved from being 4th option on a high-scoring 60-win Phoenix squad, to getting max money and being "the man" in Atlanta, and JJ eventually became a 7-time All-Star.

People also forget that Harden was drafted #3 overall as well. He wasn't a second-round pick like a Gilbert Arenas, who suddenly improved far beyond expectations. There was always somewhat of an expectation that he would be a star in the right environment, and there was an element of puzzlement as to why OKC didn't allow that to happen.
 
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Jun 23, 2008
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Still taking LeBron due to efficiency (and obviously playoff performance).

Given the age gap (4 1/2 years), and what we've seen from LeBron in that time period (since the end of the 2013-14 season, essentially), it'll really depend on how Harden ages, and whether he can maintain his level of play as he gets older and the miles add up. Granted, he's got far less mileage on the clock than LeBron (given that he played two years in college, and wasn't a regular started until his 4th year in the NBA), but he's also not the same all-time physical specimen that LeBron is. Harden is theoretically at his absolute peak right now at age 29, but we'll have to see how long it lasts.
 
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